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Ariesmordu
"What is a greater evil; to interfere as best you can, take your place as now-mortal in this world that we all share; walking the same earth, breathing the same air, and taking responsibility for defending your peers - or arrogantly, to sit by and watch the world you are sworn to protect slowly torn asunder by wrongdoing, binding yourself to inaction in the name of loyalty to those who uplifted you? I defy the path laid out for me! I reject Seradormi and everything that was her. From this day and henceforth ever-after, I change my Name of Names; no longer am I bound to the Hourglass and ceaseless vigil. I am the Cycle; Life and death, day and night, light and dark; The dark matter that fuels the expansion of the universe and pushes forward the seasons! I am Ariesmordu, and I define myself!" -Ariesmordu, the Wyrm in Waiting Ariesmordu is a paradoxical Infinite Drakess who embodies the concept of good intentions paving the road that leads to hell. Formerly the Bronze Drakess Seradormi, Ariesmordu tragically found her fall from ontological purity in a steadily growing theological rift between her and the other members of her flight, even after - and rather than - narrowly escaping falling to Murozond's madness via the insidious whispers of the Old Gods. The eventual runt of one of the final clutches laid before the Cataclysm and incubated until slightly before the Infinite Flight's creation proper, her story is a lengthy one of tragedy and good intentions gone sour. As she lived with mortals for most of her lifespan, Ariesmordu prefers to take on the form of the race she lived amongst and understands their actions - though not their emotions- far better than most dragons. Unlike many, her chosen persona has a lengthy backstory and is mostly accurate, lending high degrees of credence to her visage and explaining the value she had as an informant after re-establishing contact with her flight post-Cataclysm, as well as the toll her betrayal took short-term. As one might expect with a member of the Infinite Flight, she guards her true identity jealously and reveals herself to very few, knowing she would be viewed as evil and hunted down - if not by mortal heroes, then by her own flight, who have been zealously observing her from afar, viewing her as not enough of a threat to terminate but not safe enough to leave to her own devices. Any and all large-scale effects on the Timeline due to Ariesmordu's interference beyond the realm of what would have happened if a mortal were in her place should be considered non-canonical according to the Bronze Historians, as these are temporary perversions that are quickly corrected. Biography Ariesmordu's egg was laid slightly before the Cataclysm, but she remained inactive and did not hatch until an indeterminate period after the Wound in Silithus. The details on her birth and surrounding her hatching are sketchy and indeterminate, as post-Cataclysm the Bronze Dragonflight are unable to clearly perceive even the most immediate of futures, much less correlate what a panicked whelpling saw to what ought to happen. In addition, extended to exposure to Void magic may have left an inquantifiable mark on her mind and memories, making her testimony unable to be trusted, and it is equally uncertain whether or not she comes from this timeline or another one similar to it, though many events such as the Wound and Azerite have been described. It is assumed that Ariesmordu's actual hatching occurred before the initial corruption of the Caverns, as she describes watching the timeways fade and decay as one of her primary stimuli for running away from the Caverns of Time, as well as extraneous abuse by the future versions of her flight who were slowly losing themselves to whispers. Her self-detailed account of her experiences is graphic and extensive, detailing several events in particular, perhaps the most benign of which being a 'game' played by two elder drakes who pressed both her and a hatch-mate under claw until one of them was crushed by the pressure. It is assumed from her memories and accounts that she made her way through the desert of Tanaris to 'the edge of a long cliff, with a false-floor of leaves and so much more wet heat below', presumably the crater of Un'goro. She describes many conflicts with the native residents that left her weak and severely wounded, but unable to stop as she was incessantly hunted. She describes scaling what she thought was the same wall to get out of the crater, but has later been confirmed to be the other side of Un'goro, as she found herself now in Feralas. She set her sights on the most potent source of power within the jungle around her, which was a difficult toss-up. Viewing the lingering Arcane in Dire Maul as too similar to her old flight's magic and fearing that she was being chased, she opted for the unfamiliar. Hauling herself through the jungle for many days, she eventually came to the base of a tree and a ramp that seemed to lead up to a portal, the construction of which was unfamiliar to her; which she attempted to reach, but succumbed to her wounds and faded into unconsciousness as she attempted to pass through it. This account of falling asleep was later amended as having successfully passed through the portal and phasing her into the Emerald Dream. She 'woke' amidst a verdant realm of unbounded, beautiful life, most of which she could only say as indescribable beyond the flow of life being pure and untainted, entirely separated from the power that her flight cared to wield. As her wounds did not tick down her health ever-lower, and Time itself seemed to have little to no effect on this place, she settled down and nursed her wounds for an indeterminate amount of time, though she noted that they never seemed to heal - but this means little, as even she has said that she could have spent an hour in that realm or a thousand years and she would never have known the difference. She details being approached after a creature much like her flight, but instead garbed entirely in green emeralds rather than her kin's Bronze-y plates. Her attempt to escape failed, both due to her condition and the gross mismatch in physical and magical prowess between the two, as well as the intervention of 'bright, multicolored butterfly-dragons' that were entirely immune to any magical attack she made. These creatures have since been amended as faerie dragons. The Green Drake was quite hostile at first, and seemed intent on killing the whelpling for intruding on her territory; but, after learning her current name, she is described as hesitant and then even matronly, a complete switch in her demeanor. She took to healing the whelpling, and proceeded to explain that she was in the Emerald Dream, which was a realm she should not be within. She was told that she would not be permitted to stay, but after hearing of the reason for the whelpling's flight, it was agreed that this was grim news indeed and that the whelp could not return if this was true. An alternative was offered; a journey much longer then that the whelpling had already undertaken, and one that would exercise her magic to it's utmost; a journey up north to Nighthaven, and a chronoport that would take her back in time many years. While Ariesmordu described feeling uncomfortable with this, she had little choice and thanked her new friend for her help. When asked if she would meet her again, she was answered with 'You would know that better than I' and found herself waking outside of the portal, wounds vanished and any evidence that the Dream may have been real gone. Ariesmordu's account here becomes rather unreliable, as she details an epic journey northward over multiple provinces but claiming that there was no help along the way, a journey that no whelpling could conceivably make alone. In addition, she arrived in Nighthaven in fit state to - barely, cast her chronoport, as well as with the knowledge to do so, leaving her claim of being unaided as highly suspect. Many geographical features and events dictated that she had witnessed have in fact come to pass and exist, leaving the rest to be investigated by assorted Watchers. She describes succumbing to her wounds again, this time on the doorstep of a supposed 'Emerald Dragonsworn'. She identified him as Gaerolas Talvethren to those who inquired, and has stated multiple times with the same story that she was taken in by him and nursed back to health over the course of weeks. Despite his initial reluctance to help, her description of the Emerald Dream and the giver of information to lead her to him seemed enough to convince the man that she was not lying about her identity, purpose, or origin. She describes a bargain that was struck to avoid being sent back to her flight in the past, as she had no place there; and, if they chose to come and take her, she would not be able to resist, as she did not have the power they still did in the past and would be essentially helpless. It is also perhaps, she theorized, the reason that she was not tracked down by the Bronze of the past - that her magic was simply too weak to be of note. Here, her story becomes synchronous with a Night Elven child by the name of Fylariea Talvethren, who mysteriously appeared in the Moonglade without explanation to one Gaerolas Talvethren and an unnamed mate. Oddly, this name and event - as well as those of Fylariea's life up to to the Cataclysm - were noted to already be in the official archives by Bronze Historians, raising many questions to those who believed they understood how time worked and the paradoxical nature of such. Her story does not change much despite her draconic nature, but there are a few addenduma when it was dictated to the Bronze Historians Appearance Note: As Fylariea's appearance is dictated elsewhere, this section will only apply to the drakess in her native form. For more information on her mortal guise, see Fylariea Talvethren's Appearance. A massive and foreboding creature, Ariesmordu has a variety of descriptions with a few constants - dark scales, midnight or vantablack, occasionally described as appearing to contain stars in their reflection even if there are no stars to reflect. Despite her title containing 'Wyrm', she is not in fact a wyrm and is more accurately a drakess. Due to the temporal nature of the Bronze and Infinite flights, it is possible that she is a Wyrm in the sense that she is over five hundred, but physically she remains a drakess - that is, under fifty. Her proportions vary by descriptor, with the most common denoting her to be about fifteen feet from nose to tail-tip, with a wingspan of slightly more then that and a height of about eight feet when standing on all fours. Her body is long and feminine, lacking the brutal club more commonly found on male dragons' tails. Her spines seem to be longer and more like fish spines than just ridges, manifesting on her lower back and tail, and have transparent blue or white membrane stretching the distance between the last three spikes. A similar ridge adorns her lower neck, down to where her ribcage stops. Her wings are made of a similar color, and have sometimes been noted to trail stars and more rarely an umbral sort of darkess, like a Lunarwing's may. Her scales appear to radiate an unnatural blue-white color from between their cracks when in the dark, when nothing is present to reflect. She is sometimes described with horns and sometimes without, and sometimes these are described as the same blue-white shade as her scales in darkness. Occasionally, she shakes white-silver sand from between her scales, which is noted by all observers of the drakess. On the upper part of her neck rests a proportional chain of black leather with Bronze gears upon them, though it looks like a collar in her draconic form - various charms and important sentimental pieces omnipresent upon it. She has also been described, varyingly, as having metal armor with bronze-ish trim, but this seems situational. Her claws seem to be retractable, like a cat's, and when fully extended are almost foot-long shards of razor-sharp, curved ivory. Her teeth are pearly white and sharp triangles, like a shark's. Her eyes are a brilliant shade of munsel, perhaps vanity influenced by her like of the Kaldorei people. Personality See Fylariea Talvethren's Personality. Quotes "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide." "This is my world too." (Responding to inquiry as to why she cared about beating the Nightmare.) "Our goals align, yes? And I think you would rather not have me as an enemy. Come, now. There is work to be done." (To Garliegh Carlisle) "The Bronze sit aloof and perpetuate a series of moments. Time was never supposed to be a line; it's a city of moments, every brick a piece of you. A single line of bricks is an abomination against free will and sapience." (Dismissive of a claim that her reasoning was flawed.) "I play puppet to no one!" (After a Shadow Ascendant attempted to control her mind.) "All life is precious. Have you any idea how miraculous it is you came to be at all? And my brothers and sisters would sit by, aloof, and let it burn in the name of preserving their sick idea of a timeline." "In Tanaris there is a species of flower that only blooms for a few minutes every decade. Thousands of people travel from all over Azeroth to witness these blooms when they happen; some people spend months waiting to see one because they don't want to miss it. Beauty is found in a thing because it is finite, limited. Life is beautiful because eventually it ends. So get in there, enjoy the now - stick your nose in the meadow and smell the flowers, before they wilt and fade away forever." Notes and Trivia Historical Addendums * Supposedly, the 'Temple Incident' was actually a result in her disguise being poorly designed, and the glow she lacked at her eyes due to not being blessed by Elune being imitated by a mana-loop that instigated a glow in front of her eyes. She described the reason for her blinding as being 'the same reason a goblin light-bulb goes out when it is overcharged and the filament burns out'. * Druidism, and nature magic as a whole, was immensely difficult for her to learn. Her proficiency with arcane allowed her to imitate and pick up magical theories far faster, however, offsetting this and allowing her to learn at an accelerated pace. * She may have used low-end chronomancy to speed up her studies in the same way the Nightborne use it to artificially age wine. This is argued, because many believe the Bronze would have noticed this; the counterargument being that the Nightborne did it for ten thousand years without trouble. * She denotes that the Emerald Drake who saved her did so because of the aid Fylariea gave to her in the future in slaying Ysondre and cleansing the Dreamway, as well as saving her egg from the Nightmare. * On that note, she noted that the Nightmare seemed to fear her and had little effect, as if it knew where she hailed from. However, she did also note that she recognized it as a different flavor of the same poison that had overtaken her flight, and seemed to resonate within her - and she never saw it as disgusting as true elves did, and even admitted dangerous attraction to it. * Her corruption at the hands of her magic is still a matter of some debate as to how it is possible. Even she seems to understand very little about the processes involved, though she will admit that she is majorly responsible for the aesthetic arrangement of said mutations but is incapable of removing them from her Night Elf form, though all other bodies, including native Draconic, remain unaffected. * The Blessing of the Night Warrior observed in recent times seems to coincide with her complete conversion to Infinite, leaving the nature of the eyes and their meaning well-obfuscated. Trivia * Ariesmordu's choker forms a sympathetic bond between all of the charms on its chain. She only accepts items of great sentimental value, things hand-crafted, or things imbued with large amounts of their owners' magic as valid tokens for the choker. The charms are magically linked with the others on the choker, forming a sort of artificial gestalt network that allows instant communication and thought-sharing between Ariesmordu and the owners of any charm, or allowing the charms to relay their owners thoughts to each other through the choker. It also functions as a failsafe, providing Ariesmordu a great advantage in combat over those who gift her charms via exploitation of the Law of Sympathy in an offensive manner. * Ariesmordu is able to provide magical aid and 'blessings' to those who have charms on her choker. It is possible that each one is sworn to her service as Dragonsworn, such as protecting the minds of those she is linked to (As seen in the case of Siyeth) * It is possible that these powers can be harnessed in reverse, the drake drawing from the powers of her followers. This is most evident in the fact that she uses magic which would require a connection to the Emerald Dream to facilitate, while being essentially useless at it herself. * If the above is true, the primary provider of Ariesmordu's access to the Emerald Dream may be one of Hypnora's scales. * Fylariea's druidic forms are called into question because of Ariesmordu's existence. It is likely that she simply shapes herself into the form she wishes to take rather than actually drawing the shape from the Dream; but this is equally paradoxical as it has been observed that A; Her forms retain instincts and minds of their own and B; she is still incapable of assuming the form of the moonkin. Previously thought to be because dragons could not imitate creations of the divine, both her assuming of the Lunarwing and other dragons taking on the form of wisps to observe the Hyjal timeway disprove this. * Ariesmordu is not Infinite because she seeks to destroy time, but rather because she seeks to actively interfere with it to ensure the best possible outcome for her and those who stand with her. While she does not revere time itself, she does in fact revere the cycle. * Ariesmordu is responsible for the unusual, black-hole like behavior of Fylariea Talvethren's aura. * Fylariea's immunity to disease and poison is explained by Ariesmordu - given the exclusivity of diseases for certain biology types and the drastically reduced saturation of poison in her bloodstream. She is not truly immune; just effectively. * Ariesmordu is naturally decayed by universal entropy. If and when she is 'killed', she will turn to dust in moments. * This decay is why powerful enough dispels are agonizing. It is not the Blessing of the Night Warrior that keeps her intact, but rather the magical singularity that she has become. * Ariesmordu has described herself as a fixed point and as a fact, which confuses chronomancers everywhere. * Despite being Infinite, she is not hostile to the Bronze on-sight, though she is still extremely wary. The same is not held to be true in return much of the time. * Ariesmordu has described herself as being born to be a giant, biological piece of recording software that was given artificial intelligence to help it fulfill it's duty. * Ariesmordu's name is an anagram of her original name, Seradormi, with an added 'u' at the end to confuse hunters into thinking she is male. * Ariesmordu was a potential host for Antinomi, the Wisp Gestalt, but a new body had already been procured by one of the wisps and thus she was released. See Also Fylariea Talvethren References External Links Category:Dragon Category:Infinite Dragonflight Category:Bronze Dragonflight Category:Mages Category:Druids Category:Characters